First, squatters of this type are taking advantage of laws intended to protect renters from predatory landlords. Wherever you stand on people appropriating unused property, these laws need to stay in place even if they’re made more specific.
Second, news outlets like this will always quote a “guns and drugs” case and not the mom with three kids seeking employment or homeless vet cases.
Third, with security cams and doorbells being so cheap, there’s no reason why this should be an issue, especially for a large real estate rental company. That alone puts me in “cry me a river” mode. Notice again that the article lists interviews with individual homeowners but is actually profiling the impact on a rental company.
Hell, the basic idea behind squatter’s laws is that the squatter is actually doing something with the land instead of a derilect landlord.
If a bank isn’t immediately selling the foreclosed home, they should lose it.
IMO owning an unoccupied house thats off-market, or prohibitively-priced is probably a gambling chip.
IF there are ANY families in the same county that are homeless, it should begin being taxed as a gambling-chip. Sell-it very soon or it may used for a free shelter for however it remains unoccupied by the owner.
You encapsulated this perfectly, thank you. As a side note, speculative ownership of housing is a violent crime and should be punished as such, at least while there are any homeless people anywhere.
All good points—did you mean “tiny violin mode”, or have I been misunderstanding that song for a long time?
Could be both: “I will now play ‘Cry me a river’ on the world’s tiniest violin.”
>squatters of this type are taking advantage of laws intended to protect renters from predatory landlords.
what makes you think that’s the intention?
Being from California (and earlier from New York), that’s very much the intention. Both states (and municipal laws in places like LA, SF, and NYC) make the landlords have to jump through a lot of hoops before an eviction can take place, and the tenants can file for protection.
I know that things vary from state to state, but I’ve only been a renter in NY, NJ, and CA. I’ve also successfully sued a landlord for over $100k in damages and expenses.
squatters rights precede the founding of the United States and have nothing to do with renters rights. You’re just wrong about why these laws exist.
Precede
Bet… but the issue is the government who currently controls the land and enforces the laws.
You don’t go breaking Constantinople’s laws because they were once different in Istanbul.
this is incoherent
You’ve been handed context so you don’t have to hurt your silly little wrists typing. does the comment make sense now?
no. the governments that currently control the several states actually all have squatters rights (adverse possession) laws still on the books. the person to whom i was replying was conflating squatters rights with renters rights.
your comment seems to imply that somehow the squatters rights were eliminated at some point, but they never were.
I don’t know much about American laws, and I strongly believe that basic housing should not be for-profit.
With those caveats, if a house is empty for such a long time that squatters can claim it (7-20 years according to Google), then I think it’s not only okay to claim residence there, I think it’s the morally correct thing to do.
Obviously, there are exceptions to anything, but generally speaking, it sounds like society could use more of this.
i HIGHLY doubt the houses being referenced in the article have been vacant for 7-20 years.
On the other hand, I can’t imagine they’ve only been “vacant” for 6 months or something.
Again, I’m far from an expert on American law - much less on a state-by-state basis, but I have to think you’d need to live there for quite some time for it to count for squatters rights.
In these situations 6 months is exactly what I’d imagine. Where I live I can’t imagine any house staying vacant for 6 months. It costs more to rent a house here than it does to buy one. My mortgage payment is $1400/month, but I could rent my house for over $3k a month. it’s ridiculous.
You know who probably won’t have a problem with squatters? People who buy houses to live in them.
Hard to feel bad for a fucking landlord. Get a real job loser.
Hard to feel bad for a fucking landlord. Get a real job loser.
“I don’t have empathy for others who are better off than I am. Work hourly as a W2 like the rest of us instead of using systems, tax codes, and laws in place by the government to generate a better life for yourself while growing society.”
I’m mostly confused as to why an instagram account is in any way relevant to squatters.
did you read the article?
It’s my opinion that housing is so basic a need that no house should be allowed to use for a gambling chip.
The ‘housing market’ needs to be broken in favor of individual ownership. (For many, speculation has driven ownership out of reach.)
Only individuals may purchase individual homes, and must agree to occupy them as their primary and only residences until they sell and vacate them. (Live-in landlords included, e.g. boarders.)
As part of the deal, they must first find another individual buyer (under the same terms) for their present home.
(Futher stipluations needed, but none that permit violation of the above principle. )
I don’t think speculation is a big factor, actually. Rentals don’t earn money without renters and they don’t appreciate nearly fast enough to make up for the lack of income.
In my country at least there’s just measurably less houses than there needs to be.
they don’t appreciate nearly fast enough to make up for the lack of income.
depends on where you are. i bought a new house 3 years ago and within a year the value of my house had increased nearly 100k.
That’s one hot market.
Most of the time they don’t do that, though, and there’s a good chance if you had rented it out the wear and tear would not have reduced that value very much, so there’s still not a lot of “opportunity cost”.
to be fair it’s leveled out since. it’s still up that much, but didn’t continue the meteoric rise.
